Biography
Suezan Aikins RCA (born 1952) is a Canadian printmaker, painter, sculptor, and poet who is among the foremost Western practitioners of traditional Japanese woodblock printing. She grew up in Montreal and studied fine art at Mount Allison University, the Ontario College of Art, and the Ecole du Musee des Beaux Arts before earning her BFA at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.
The pivotal chapter in Aikins's artistic development came when she and her husband, printer Sam Rogers, spent a year at the Yoshida Woodblock Print Studio in Tokyo, studying under the direction of the master printmaker Toshi Yoshida. Following the traditional division of labor between carver and printer, Aikins prepares her images and carves the blocks while Rogers completes the printing. This collaborative model connects their practice directly to the centuries-old shin-hanga workshop tradition, though their imagery draws on both Western and Eastern artistic sources.
Aikins's prints are characterized by atmospheric landscapes in which light and color evoke spiritual states. She has described her ambition as wanting to apply the lessons of Western abstraction's explorations of color and space to landscape imagery where light and shade "echo and evoke spiritual states." Best known for her Japanese woodblock prints, she also creates watercolor paintings and sculptures, and has published poetry in Japanese poetic forms including haiku, tanka, and renga.
She has exhibited extensively across North America, Japan, England, and Germany, with solo shows in Tokyo, Osaka, Okinawa, and Boston. A twenty-five-year retrospective of her woodblock prints traveled to three public galleries in Germany in 2000-2001. Among her awards are election as an Academician of the Royal Canadian Academy of Art (1990), the Canadian Progress Club Women of Excellence Award for Culture (1993), the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant (1988), and the Pauline Manning Award for Excellence (1980). She lives and works in Nova Scotia.
Key Facts
- Active Period
- 1952
- Nationality
- 🇨🇦Canada
- Movement
- Contemporary Mokuhanga
Frequently Asked Questions
Suezan Aikins RCA (born 1952) is a Canadian printmaker, painter, sculptor, and poet who is among the foremost Western practitioners of traditional Japanese woodblock printing. She grew up in Montreal and studied fine art at Mount Allison University, the Ontario College of Art, and the Ecole du Musee des Beaux Arts before earning her BFA at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.
Suezan Aikins was active born in 1952. They were associated with the Contemporary Mokuhanga movement.
Suezan Aikins's work was shaped by the Contemporary Mokuhanga tradition in Japanese woodblock printmaking. Contemporary Mokuhanga: Contemporary mokuhanga (literally "wood-block print") encompasses artists working from approximately 1970 to the present who continue or reinvent traditional Japanese woodblock printing techniques.
Suezan Aikins is a contemporary printmaker contributing to the ongoing tradition of woodblock printing. Contemporary prints offer collectors an affordable entry point into Japanese printmaking. Prices range from $100 for smaller works to $1,500 for major compositions. Most prints sell in the $200–$600 range. The contemporary printmaking scene is active and international, with artists exhibiting at galleries, art fairs, and print biennials worldwide.